With the fan vitriol at a high level in Cincinnati and with his apparent feud with Bengals coach Marvin Lewis escalating, it make senses if WR Chad Ochocinco wanted to leave the city. And, for that matter, if the Bengals wanted him to leave.

Well, it’s happening.

According to Local 12’s Brad Johansen -- formerly the play-by-play announcer for the Bengals until he was unceremoniously dumped before the lockout -- Ochocinco has been traded to the Patriots for a draft pick.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Joe Reedy, Ochocinco’s contract had been renegotiated to a three-year deal before the deal was made.

The Bengals were slated to pay Ochocinco $6 million this year, but his skills declined last year, and with Terrell Owens in the same locker room, the two receivers weren’t very conducive to a cohesive team unit.

Ochocinco has been clamoring for a trade for the past few seasons. He finally has received his wish.

There's been plenty of action in free agency thus far (don't forget to follow it all in our live, updating Experience and with our 2011 NFL Free Agency Tracker!), but it also warrants mentioning that there have been a good number of first-round draft picks signed by various teams over the past few days.

Interestingly, many of these players who are signing have received fully guaranteed contracts, something you don't typically see with rookies, even though the total contracts, because of the new rookie wage system, are coming in lower than previous years.

For instance, the Cowboys signed Tyson Smith, their top pick, likely right tackle for 2011 and eventual successor to Doug Free, to a four-year, $12.5 million deal which is entirely guaranteed. By contrast, C.J. Spiller, taken in the same spot last season by the Bills, received a five-year, $25 million deal with $20.5 million guaranteed.

In Denver, Von Miller is "expected" to sign a four-year, $21-million deal with the Broncos soon. He probably would have seen up to $50 million more (not all guaranteed, of course) under the old rookie salary system. The ironic part? He was a named plaintiff on the Brady v. NFL lawsuit. It's worth noting that Miller's not sweating losing any pile of money and says he "plans on getting three, four, five contracts."

[(UPDATED 4:47 p.m. ET): John Elway confirms the team has agreed to terms with Miller. Wrote Elway on his Twitter feed: "Can't wait to get him on the field."]

The final thing to remember as the first-year player contracts start to come in? There's a fifth-year team option built into these four-year deals, and that deal must be picked up by the end of the third year or else the amount owed balloons to an average of the top-10 salaries at the position.

If a player performs well in his first three seasons then, he stands to either get locked for a fifth year or find himself inked to a new contract sooner than he expected.

Everything's not all roses, though. Agent Jack Bechta writes at the National Football Post that some teams are utilizing dollars for later-round picks and allocating them towards first rounders. It's not happening often, at least right now, but Bechta cites it as a "disturbing trend" because it's something that could potentially create a false inflation system for first-round picks as agents try to get more money than the player drafted the previous year.

There's not telling how often that will happen going forward, but it's still a bit concerning as the rookies current wages are pushed back because of the new CBA.

On the bright side, if shifting salaries does happen, it's a lot less likely that JaMarcus Russell remains the biggest NFL Draft bust forever. So there's that.

UPDATED 7:48 p.m. ET: The Jaguars have announced that No. 10 overall pick, QB Blaine Gabbert, has signed his contract.

UPDATED 11:14 p.m. ET: No. 13 pick Nick Fairley has signed a four-year deal worth about $10 million with the Lions.

The past few months, we’ve paid quite a bit of attention to QB Carson Palmer and whether Bengals owner Mike Brown would trade him and get something of value for his estranged QB or if he’d let him retire.

Now that Brown has said he’d rather let Palmer rot in California than trade him (he said it a little nicer than that), the Bengals had to turn their attention to finding another veteran QB who can compete with rookie Andy Dalton for the starting spot.

1) When Gradkowski played in Tampa Bay, he worked with Jay Gruden, who’s now in charge of the Bengals offense. Their familiarity with each other certainly will help Gradkowski, particularly since Dalton hasn’t gotten any practice time in Gruden’s offense.

2) Gradkowski is a legit starting quarterback, compiling a 6-14 record in 20 starts (a third of those wins came against the Bengals!). Yes, that record is not impressive, but he’s the kind of guy that can provide some veteran leadership to help a young quarterback (you saw that a little bit last year in Oakland with Jason Campbell).

Either way, Gradkowski was so excited, he tweeted the following: “Bengal fans let’s get ready to rock and roll! Can’t wait for this great opportunity!”

Yes. Yes it technically is Palmer's choice. And there's an argument to be made that Palmer is shirking his commitment. Mike Brown is making that argument.

"I'm not expecting him to be back. Carson signed a contract, he made a commitment," Brown continued. "He gave us his word. We relied on his word and his commitment. We expected him to perform here. If he is going to walk away from his commitment we aren’t going to reward him for doing it."

Instead, it's probably closer to "stupidly stubborn." If the Bengals traded Palmer -- and they absolutely could trade Palmer and get good value for him at this stage of things -- would the Bengals be harmed in any particular way?

No, no they would not, because they would acquire something in return for Palmer that would benefit the organization -- and the fans! -- over the long term.

Instead, they're going to let Palmer just walk away because he's sick of playing for the organization that treats its employees -- and its fans! -- in this way despite having just gotten through the longest work stoppage in history?

When Roger Goodell announced during a Thursday press conference that the owners had voted 31-0 on a proposed settlement to end the lockout, the jubilation -- and the sense of relief that accompanied it -- was palpable. It was also fleeting.

In the hours after Goodell's announcement, many players said they felt blindsided. Some called the owners "arrogant" and their proposal a "power play." Still, there was optimism that the lockout wouldn't drag on much longer.

Bengals tight end Reggie Kelly, an alternate player representative, sounded equally upbeat, though he recognized that players were initially concerned.

"I think guys at first were angry [Thursday] because the first time we heard about the proposal was on TV when they voted on it," said Kelly, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer's Joe Reedy. "You need to negotiate and do it the right way.

"People have started to cool off. It's not about egos and personal feelings. It's a business. All in all it's going to work out and we're going to be ready to play."

In related Bengals-lockout news, the organization emailed season-ticket holders Thursday announcing that the lockout was over. We applaud the the team's confidence, although its credibility takes a hit when you read sentences like this: "This year — like others before it — we will focus our energies on returning to the Super Bowl again."

Shutdown Corner's Doug Farrar sums it up nicely. "The fact that the Bengals' organization (long known as one of the league's most parsimonious and least competent, though we certainly don't include Marvin Lewis in that equation) is out there with this one will just provide a bit of comic relief in what has been a very arduous and unnecessarily dramatic process."

But according to Benson's attorneys, the alleged victim was trying to extort money from their client.

"Thomas Crosley, the attorney for Clavens 'Miami' Charles, the individual involved in the incident with Cedric Benson this weekend, contacted us yesterday to demand a 'settlement' meeting," Benson's attorneys said in a statement released Thursday. "This attorney stated that if we did not respond within a short period, Mr. Charles would respond to media requests, including a request for an interview from TMZ. We have learned that Mr. Charles’ representatives have contacted at least one public relations firm to assist them with publicity."

Benson's attorneys said that not only is there "nothing to settle with Charles," but that they "intend to confront Charles in defending the misdemeanor charges against Cedric. Cedric did not act without provocation."

“Earlier this week Clavens Charles was the victim of an unprovoked violent assault by Cedric Benson that resulted in his hospitalization,” the attorney’s statement said. “Today Clavens Charles has been the victim of an equally violent media smear campaign by the attorneys representing Cedric Benson. . . . No money demand was ever made to Cedric Benson or his legal counsel. Money was never mentioned by us at any time.”

So it's not altogether surprising that Ochocinco is again in the news, and it's news solely because he tweeted it. On Thursday, Chad was pulled over by Cincinnati police for having his windows too darkly tinted.

It was with some hesitation that we wrote about this given how Ochocinco responded to Yahoo'scoverage. But since we're still waiting for actual football, and this is tangentially related to the NFL, we took a chance.

ATLANTA -- As owners have nearly finished entering the Gateway Marriott hotel for today’s 10 a.m. meeting, the vibe of the owners and their team executives is that a vote to ratify the CBA will likely occur today.

Even if the players don’t vote themselves.

“I think so,” Katie Blackburn, Bengals executive vice president, told CBSSports.com and Cincinnati's WKRC-TV. “We’ll go in there and hear what they have to say. But there could be (a vote).”

It makes sense if the owners are to vote on the labor deal, if only to put the onus on the NFLPA to finish the deal and send the agreement to the Brady v NFL plaintiffs. And though the Bengals could very well vote no on the new CBA -- as owner Mike Brown did in 2006 -- it seems pretty clear that most of the owners will give their approval to the new deal.

“I’m neutral going in,” Blackburn said. “I’m going in there to see what happens.”